The Second Book of Machabees (2 Maccabees)

The Second Book of Machabees is the last book of the Old Testament in the Catholic Bible. It does not continue the First Book of Machabees but goes back over part of the same ground, from about 176 to 161 BC, with far more detail and a constant eye on God's hand in events. Here are the high priest Onias, the old scribe Eleazar, the mother of the seven sons, and Judas Machabeus purifying the Temple and sending an offering to Jerusalem "for the sins of the dead". Below we set out its author, date and canon, summarise its fifteen chapters, and point to the passages most searched, each linked to its chapter in Latin and English.

Who wrote the Second Book of Machabees?

The book names its own source. In the preface the sacred writer says that "all such things as have been comprised in five books by Jason of Cyrene, we have attempted to abridge in one book" (2 Machabees 2:24). The author is therefore an inspired abridger, an epitomist, whose name has not come down to us, working from the five-book history of a Jew of Cyrene in North Africa. Nothing more is known of Jason.

The epitomist speaks of his labour with unusual candour. Abridging, he says, was "no easy task, yea rather a business full of watching and sweat" (2:27), and he closes by asking pardon if he has written "not so perfectly" (15:39). Bishop Challoner notes that the Spirit of God who assists the sacred penmen does not exempt them from labour in seeking out their matter, as St Luke too wrote "having diligently attained to all things" (Luke 1:3), and that the closing apology concerns "the style and manner of writing," not the truth of the narration. The book does not claim Judas Machabeus as its author; the two letters at its head (1:1–2:19) were sent by the Jews of Jerusalem to their brethren in Egypt.

When was it written?

The opening letters carry the date "the year one hundred and eighty-eight" (1:10) of the Seleucid era, that is 124 BC; the Douay prints it at the head of the second letter, while the Catholic Encyclopedia reads it as closing the first. Either way, the Encyclopedia concludes that the epitome cannot have been written earlier than 124 BC and "cannot in any case be very much later." Jason's own history, ending in 161 BC, was earlier still.

The book was composed in Greek. St Jerome, who found the First Book in Hebrew, observed in his preface to the Books of Kings that "the second is Greek, as can be proved from its very style." It was written for the Jews of Egypt, to bind them to the one Temple of Jerusalem and to the Law. Many modern scholars place the abridgment somewhat later; the Church has not defined the date.

What is the Book of 2 Maccabees about? A summary

The two letters and the preface (chapters 1–2)

Chapters 1–2 open with two letters inviting the Jews of Egypt to keep the feast of the purification of the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of Casleu. The second recalls how the sacred fire hidden at the Babylonian captivity was found again as "thick water" under Nehemias (the Nehemiah of 2 Esdras) and blazed up on the altar, and how the prophet Jeremias hid the tabernacle, the ark and the altar of incense in a cave on the mountain from which Moses saw the Promised Land (2:4–8). The epitomist's preface follows (2:20–33).

Heliodorus and the high priest Onias (chapter 3)

Under the godly high priest Onias, Jerusalem lived "with all peace." In chapter 3 King Seleucus sends his minister Heliodorus to seize the Temple treasury. A terrible rider and two radiant young men strike him down, and he lives only because Onias prays for him.

The Hellenisers and the sack of Jerusalem (chapters 4–5)

When Antiochus IV, "the Illustrious" (Epiphanes), takes the throne, Jason, Onias's brother, buys the high priesthood and brings in "the fashion of the heathens", with a gymnasium beneath the citadel (chapter 4). Menelaus outbids him and has the true high priest Onias murdered. In chapter 5 Antiochus storms the city and plunders the sanctuary, and the writer gives the key to the whole book: "God did not choose the people for the place's sake, but the place for the people's sake" (5:19). Judas Machabeus withdraws into the mountains.

Persecution and the martyrs (chapters 6–7)

Chapter 6 describes the persecution: the Temple renamed for Jupiter Olympius, the Sabbath forbidden, mothers thrown from the walls for circumcising their sons. The author asks his readers to see these calamities "not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of our nation" (6:12). Then come the two great martyrdoms: the ninety-year-old scribe Eleazar (6:18–31) and the seven brothers with their mother (chapter 7).

Judas's victories, the death of Antiochus and the purification (chapters 8–10)

Judas gathers six thousand men who trust "in the Almighty Lord" (chapter 8) and defeats Nicanor. Chapter 9 tells of the dreadful death of Antiochus, struck in his bowels after his flight from Persepolis. In chapter 10 Judas recovers the Temple, builds a new altar and keeps eight days of rejoicing.

Wars under Antiochus Eupator and the prayer for the dead (chapters 11–13)

The regent Lysias marches on Judea and is routed after a horseman in white with golden armour appears before the Jews (chapter 11); letters of peace follow. In chapter 12 Judas fights Timotheus and Gorgias and, after the battle, finds, under the coats of his fallen soldiers, votive offerings taken from the idols of Jamnia, which the Law forbade: he has prayers made and sends silver to Jerusalem for a sacrifice for their sins. Chapter 13 recounts the campaign of the young king Eupator, the execution of Menelaus and the treaty that follows.

Nicanor, Razias and the final victory (chapters 14–15)

Under Demetrius, the false high priest Alcimus sets Nicanor against Judas. The elder Razias, called "the father of the Jews", dies rather than fall into the hands of the wicked (chapter 14). On the eve of battle Judas sees in a dream Onias and the prophet Jeremias praying for the people and receives a golden sword; Nicanor is slain, and the thirteenth of Adar is kept as a feast (chapter 15).

Themes and the Catholic reading

Prayer for the dead and Purgatory. Judas's offering is the clearest Old Testament witness to prayer for the departed. The soldiers had died with a sin upon them, yet "fallen asleep with godliness" (12:45): not so lost that prayer could not help them, not so pure that they needed none. Bishop Challoner calls the passage "an evident and undeniable proof of the practice of praying for the dead under the old law," a custom Judas could not have introduced had it not always been observed.

St Augustine, in his treatise On the Care to be Had for the Dead, cites these books for sacrifice offered for the dead and adds that the authority of the whole Church in this custom would suffice even without them. The Council of Trent (Sess. XXV) teaches, from Holy Scripture and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, that there is a Purgatory and that the souls detained there are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, chiefly by the sacrifice of the altar. Our articles on what Purgatory is and on prayer for the dead take this further.

The resurrection of the body. No Old Testament book speaks more plainly of the resurrection. The second brother tells the king that "the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life" (7:9); the third holds out his hands, saying he hopes "to receive them again from him" (7:11); Razias calls on "the Lord of life and spirit" to restore his body (14:46). St Paul seems to have the seven brothers in view when he writes in Hebrews 11:35 of those who "were racked, not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better resurrection." See our article on the resurrection of the body.

Creation from nothing. The mother's words to her youngest son, "consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also" (7:28), are the plainest statement of creation ex nihilo in the Old Testament.

The intercession of the saints. In Judas's vision, Onias, long dead, prays "for all the people," and Jeremias is "a lover of his brethren... he that prayeth much for the people" (15:12–14). Catholic theologians read here the prayer of the just departed for those on earth.

Martyrdom. The Fathers treated the seven brothers as Christian martyrs before Christ. St Cyprian holds them up in his Exhortation to Martyrdom; St Gregory Nazianzen and St John Chrysostom preached panegyrics in their honour, and the Roman Martyrology commemorates the holy Machabees on 1 August. St Augustine writes in The City of God (XVIII, 36) that the Church holds these books canonical "on account of the extreme and wonderful sufferings of certain martyrs."

The feast of the Dedication. The eight-day feast instituted at the purification of the Temple (10:5–8; compare 1 Machabees 4) is the Hanukkah of the Jews. Our Lord Himself went up to it: "it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: and it was winter" (John 10:22).

Famous chapters and verses

2 Maccabees 12:43–46. "And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection... It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." It is the Epistle of the second Mass of All Souls in the 1962 Missal. Read it in context in 2 Machabees 12, from 12:38.

2 Maccabees 7. The seven brothers and their mother, with 7:9, 7:23 and 7:28 among the most quoted lines. Read the whole of 2 Machabees 7.

2 Maccabees 6:18–31. Eleazar refuses even to pretend to eat swine's flesh, lest the young think "that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, was gone over to the life of the heathens" (6:24), and dies leaving "an example of virtue and fortitude" (6:31).

2 Maccabees 2:4–8. Jeremias hides the ark: "The place shall be unknown, till God gather together the congregation of the people, and receive them to mercy" (2:7). See 2 Machabees 2.

2 Maccabees 15:12–16. Onias and Jeremias in Judas's dream, and the golden sword: "Take this holy sword a gift from God" (15:16).

Its place in the canon and in the liturgy

The Douay-Rheims calls it the Second Book of Machabees, following the Latin Liber II Maccabaeorum; modern English Bibles spell it 2 Maccabees. It belongs to the deuterocanonical books, those of the Old Testament not found in the Hebrew canon of the later Synagogue but received by the Church from the Greek Septuagint used by the Apostles. The Roman council under Pope St Damasus (382), the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), the Council of Florence (1442) and the Council of Trent (Sess. IV, 1546) all name both Books of the Machabees among the sacred books, and Trent anathematises whoever does not receive them, with all their parts, as sacred and canonical.

The Protestant Reformers returned to the shorter Jewish canon. Luther set these books in an appendix as useful to read but not equal to Scripture; the King James Version of 1611 still printed 1 and 2 Maccabees among its Apocrypha, until later editions dropped them altogether. The question was not academic: 2 Machabees 12 stands against the denial of prayer for the dead.

In the liturgy, 2 Machabees 12:43–46 is read at the second Mass of All Souls' Day (2 November) and at the anniversary Mass for the dead; see our pages on All Souls' Day and the novena for the dead. In the Roman Breviary, the Books of the Machabees are read at Matins through the weeks of October. You can follow the Office in our Breviary.

How to read it

Read 1 Machabees first for the sober chronicle, then this book for the inner meaning of the same years; chapters 4–7 of 2 Machabees run alongside chapter 1 of the First Book. The prophecies of Daniel, which St Jerome and the Fathers applied to Antiochus Epiphanes, light up the whole period. Return to chapters 7 and 12 in November, the month of the holy souls. Each chapter page sets the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims, so that the Church's own Latin is always at hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Second Book of Maccabees?

The book tells us that it is an abridgment, in one book, of a five-book history by Jason of Cyrene (2 Machabees 2:24). The inspired abridger, or epitomist, does not give his name and is unknown. It was not written by Judas Machabeus, though the second of the two letters at its head bears his name.

When was 2 Maccabees written?

The letters at the head of the book are dated to the Seleucid year 188, that is 124 BC, and the abridgment cannot be earlier than that year nor, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, very much later. Jason of Cyrene's longer history, which ends in 161 BC, was written earlier. Many modern scholars suggest a somewhat later date for the abridgment, in the first century BC.

What is the Book of Maccabees about?

The two Books of the Machabees tell how the Jews, led by Judas Machabeus and his brothers, resisted the Greek king Antiochus IV, who profaned the Temple and forbade the Law. The Second Book covers about 176 to 161 BC: Heliodorus, the martyrs Eleazar and the seven brothers, the purification of the Temple, Judas's victories down to the death of Nicanor, and the offering for the dead in chapter 12.

What does 2 Maccabees say about Purgatory?

In 2 Machabees 12:43–46, Judas sends money to Jerusalem for a sacrifice "for the sins of the dead," and the writer concludes: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." Prayer cannot help the damned, and the blessed do not need it, so the passage supposes a state in which the dead can still be loosed from sins. The Church has always read it, with St Augustine and the Council of Trent, as a witness to Purgatory.

Why was the Book of Maccabees removed from the Bible?

It was never removed from the Catholic Bible: the Church listed both Books of the Machabees at Rome (382), Hippo (393), Carthage (397), Florence (1442) and Trent (1546). The Protestant Reformers adopted the shorter Hebrew canon of the later Synagogue and set the deuterocanonical books apart as "Apocrypha". The teaching of 2 Machabees 12 on prayer for the dead was one of the points at issue.

Is the Book of Maccabees in the King James Bible?

The original King James Version of 1611 printed 1 and 2 Maccabees among the Apocrypha, between the Old and New Testaments. Later editions dropped the Apocrypha, so most King James Bibles sold today do not contain them. The Douay-Rheims, like every Catholic Bible, places them at the end of the Old Testament as canonical Scripture.

How many books of Maccabees are there?

The Catholic Church holds two Books of the Machabees as canonical, the First and the Second. Two other writings called 3 and 4 Maccabees exist in some Greek manuscripts, but they are not part of the Catholic canon. The Ethiopian Church's books of Meqabyan are different works altogether.

How many chapters are in 2 Maccabees?

The Second Book of Machabees has 15 chapters, in the Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims alike. The first two hold the letters to the Jews of Egypt and the epitomist's preface, and the narrative proper begins with Heliodorus in chapter 3. The First Book of Machabees, by comparison, has 16 chapters.

Is the Book of Maccabees historically accurate?

The Second Book is a work of history, though more rhetorical than the First, and it reports documents such as the opening letters as they were received. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia answers the main objections and notes that Josephus, who did not know the book, often confirms it. The epitomist's apology for writing "not so perfectly" concerns his style, as Challoner explains, not the truth of what he tells.

Read the whole Second Book of Machabees verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) with the Latin Vulgate, especially 2 Machabees 1–15, 1 Machabees 4, John 10:22, Hebrews 11:35; Bishop Challoner's notes on 2 Machabees 2, 12 and 15; St Jerome, Preface to the Books of Kings (Prologus Galeatus); St Augustine, The City of God XVIII, 36, and On the Care to be Had for the Dead; St Cyprian, Exhortation to Martyrdom, to Fortunatus; St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration on the Machabees; St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Machabees; Council of Rome under St Damasus (382), Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), Council of Florence, Decree for the Jacobites (1442); Council of Trent, Sess. IV (1546) and Sess. XXV, Decree on Purgatory; Roman Martyrology, 1 August; Missale Romanum (1962), Masses of All Souls and for the Dead; Breviarium Romanum, Matins of October; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Machabees, The Books of".